Westchester Capital Management Launches WCM Alternatives: Event-Driven Fund

NEW YORK, Jan. 8, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Westchester Capital Management ("WCM") today announces the launch of the WCM Alternatives: Event-Driven Fund (WCEIX), a multi-strategy, absolute return mutual fund designed to profit from discrete events, including mergers, acquisitions, asset sales or divestitures, restructurings, re-financings, recapitalizations, reorganizations or other special situations ("event-driven opportunities").  The strategy focuses on generating non-correlated returns and has the flexibility to address shifting market landscapes.  The Firm, a pioneer in liquid alternative mutual funds, is strategically expanding its lineup of alternative investment offerings.

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According to Michael Shannon, co-Portfolio Manager and Managing Member of WCM, "The Fund follows a proven multi-event strategy that WCM has been managing for the past five years.  In today's challenging environment, the Fund seeks to help investors maximize their portfolio over time by lowering its risk profile while also providing the potential for attractive inflation-adjusted returns."

Westchester Capital Management, the investment manager of The Merger Fund^®, will employ its proprietary risk management process, targeting opportunities diversified across, sectors, strategies and asset classes.  "WCM has specialized in building sophisticated analytical models of corporate events, complemented with three decades of deal and company-specific research experience.  Our goal is to identify mispriced situations where we can achieve superior risk-adjusted returns regardless of the direction of the markets," explains Roy Behren, co-Portfolio Manager and Managing Member of WCM.  "The Fund offers investors a diversified solution that combines WCM's proven investment philosophy with over 30 years of experience and knowledge of the event-driven market."

About Westchester Capital Management
Westchester Capital Management (WCM) is a registered investment adviser focusing on delivering innovative event-driven investment strategies targeted at financial advisers and their high-net-worth clients.  WCM manages approximately $5.4 billion in assets through a variety of vehicles, including mutual funds, hedge funds, UCITS funds and variable insurance products.  The Firm, based in Westchester County, New York, specializes in alternative investment strategies, and in 1989 launched the industry's first liquid alternative mutual fund dedicated to merger arbitrage. More information regarding WCM can be found at www.westchestercapitalfunds.com.

Before investing in the WCM Alternatives: Event-Driven Fund, carefully consider its investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses.  For a prospectus or summary prospectus containing this and other information, please call 800.343.8959.  Please read it carefully before investing.

Mutual fund investing involves risk. Principal loss is possible. Merger-arbitrage and event-driven investing involves the risk that the adviser's evaluation of the outcome of a proposed event, whether it be a merger, reorganization, regulatory issue or other event, will prove incorrect and that the Fund's return on the investment will be negative. Investments in foreign companies may entail political, cultural, regulatory, legal, and tax risks different from those associated with comparable transactions in the United States. The frequency of the Fund's transactions will vary from year to year, though merger arbitrage portfolios typically have higher turnover rates than portfolios of typical long-only funds. Increased portfolio turnover may result in higher brokerage commissions, dealer mark-ups and other transaction costs. The higher costs associated with increased portfolio turnover may offset gains in the Fund's performance. The Fund may enter into short sale transactions for, among other reasons, purposes of protecting against a decline in the market value of the acquiring company's shares prior to the acquisition completion. If the price of a security sold short increases between the time of the short sale and the time the Fund covers its short position, the Fund will incur a loss. The amount of a potential loss on an uncovered short sale transaction is theoretically unlimited. Debt securities may fluctuate in value due to, among other things, changes in interest rates, general economic conditions, industry fundamentals, market sentiment and the financial condition of the issuer, including the issuer's credit rating or financial performance. Derivatives may create leverage which will amplify the effect of the performance of those instruments on the Fund and may produce significant losses. The Fund's hedging strategy will be subject to the Fund's investment adviser's ability to assess correctly the degree of correlation between the performance of the instruments used in the hedging strategy and the performance of the investments in the portfolio being hedged.  Securities rated below investment-grade (and unrated securities of comparable credit quality), commonly referred to as "high-yield" or "junk" bonds, have speculative characteristics and generally have more credit risk than higher-rated securities.  As a non-diversified fund, the Fund has a greater potential to realize losses upon the occurrence of adverse events affecting an issuer in its portfolio.   The Fund's investments in smaller and medium-sized companies carry more risks than investments in larger companies. Companies with small and medium size market capitalization often have narrower markets.  The fund has no operating history to evaluate and may not attract sufficient assets to achieve or maximize investment and operational efficiencies.

The WCM Alternatives:  Event-Driven Fund is distributed by Quasar Distributors, LLC.

Diversification does not assure a profit or protect against a loss in a declining market.

Definition:  Correlation is a statistical measure of how two securities move in relation to each other.

SOURCE Westchester Capital Management